Stay
by UA
Summary: "Stay here tonight." ...her freckles look like stardust and her eyes a midnight sky.


_Honestly? It's a ficlet full of bad almost smut and feelings set at the Prison that pretends Merle never died. Pretty much pretends Merle hasn't met back up with Team Family again. Basically a Season 3 AUish fic. Enjoy. I'm struggling with everything else so you lovelies get this instead, hahaha. _

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"Stay here tonight."

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Her fingers catch his. Flutter like butterfly wings against the lines of his palm. Circle his wrist and give a little tug that ain't much but still has him stumbling into her. Woman's been smiling since the old man closed his Bible. Declared Glenn and Maggie hitched. Been stealing looks at him when she thought he weren't looking, blue eyes soft and wanting, and _fuck_ but he ain't made of stone. Because there ain't nothing prettier than her when she's happy. Nothing he wants more than to give her what _she_ wants. Trouble is, he don't know what that is exactly and he ain't about to ask. Lucky for him, she knows. Somehow, she always _knows_.

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"Stay."

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The word ain't nothing more than a soft breath lost between them as those slender fingers tickle across his pulse point. They don't linger. Thank fuck for that. Ain't long before they skate across his palm again. Lace through his own. Give him another little tug that puts them nose to nose, where her freckles look like stardust and her eyes a midnight sky. Deep and dark with untold wonders as she guides the hand she's holding to her hip. Puts it there for safekeeping while she captures and nuzzles its twin. Presses that pretty smile there. Shows him more trust than he rightfully deserves. Shows him exactly what she wants.

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"Stay."

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One last time but she don't say it in words. She says it with the way she carefully snakes her arm around his back. Holds him close and touches her mouth to his. Gentle. Soft. Patient. So damn patient. Even when he pulls back. Can't do nothing more than stare. Watch those old hurts well up in her blue eyes and try to steal her confidence. Eavesdrop while ghosts whisper lies in her ear. She's patient til she's not. Til she's pulling away and putting her back to him. Her shoulders and her voice so small he aches for how fucked up he is.

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"It's alright, Daryl."

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"Ain't."

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"It is. _Really_."

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Woman's got tears caught in her lashes. Caught in her throat when she turns to him. Offers up her biggest, bravest smile. It don't waver. Not til he reaches for her shaking hand and places it over his runaway heart. Lets it go and touches his thumb to her chin. "Ain't. Ain't nothing alright 'bout me making you feel…"

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"Daryl."

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"Something in me, it's broken. _I'm_ broken. Ain't what you deserve."

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"But what if you're what I want?"

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She means it. Feels it too. Fool could see that and he's been a fool long enough. His thumb kisses that soft pink lip of hers and he drops his head, weak as her fingers trace the ridge of his collarbone before curling into the hair at the nape of his neck. Groans. "Ask me. Again." Forehead leaning against his chest, she does. Quiet beneath the notes of music, the echoes of laughter in the Prison's walls, but he hears it.

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"Stay."

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She kisses him again. Tentative and even softer than before. Sighs and lets him in at the first shy touch of his tongue. Lets him slide his arm around her waist and hold her close. Bury his face in her silver hair and just breathe with her until his heart knows calm again. Until those fingers of hers return to work, slipping buttons free. Steal inside his shirt and trace his ribs. Dip inside the well of his navel before flirting with the buckle of his belt. Linger there until he leans down, kisses away her uncertainty.

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"Stay."

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She whispers it again as he backs her up against the cool cell wall. Fists one hand in her hair while the other ghosts over the wanton curve of her neck. Past her collarbones. The feminine swell of her small breasts. He's got the button to her jeans undone and two fingers curled inside her before he can get lost in his own head again. His thumb teasing that needy little ball of nerves and his mouth mapping the sweet cluster of freckles on her shoulder when his belt hits the concrete floor with a quiet click.

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"Stay."

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She gasps against his lips when he thrusts into the hot slick of her, his damp fingers clenched around the trembling thigh wrapped high around his waist. Hand tenderly cupping her head. Her blue eyes are unfocused. Her mouth soft and yielding. But her fingers? Her fingers never stop moving. They touch. They tangle in his hair. They trace his scars, trace the hair leading down to his dick. They take him apart sure as her smile.

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"Stay."

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She murmurs against his chest as she holds him. As he holds her. The Prison is quiet all around them, the sounds of Glenn and Maggie's joyful celebration long since silent. Her heart beats a tattoo against his own and he wonders if it's really as easy as deciding she's his. Deciding he's hers. Deciding to let the old man recite a few words from a book he ain't never found meaning in. Figures fuck it. He'll let her show him the way. After all. Woman's brought him this far. "Sleep. Ain't going nowhere."

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